Plans to dump radioactive water into the ocean

Fukushima releasing radioactive steam. Just how safe is nuclear energy?

Tokyo Electric Power Co. plans to dump contaminated water from its crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant into the Pacific Ocean after removing radioactive substances to reduce contamination to legally permissible levels.

Tepco said Thursday the measure is necessary because the utility fears it will eventually run out of capacity to store radioactive water that continues to accumulate at the plant due to water being injected to help cool the three reactors that experienced core meltdowns in March 2011 according to Japan Times.

Nearly two years after the Fukushima nuclear disaster, radioactive fish are still being caught offshore.

On 26 October 2012 TEPCO admitted that it could not exclude radiation emissions into the ocean, although the radiation levels were stabilised. Undetected leaks into the ocean from the reactors, could not be ruled out, because their basements remain flooded with cooling water, and the steel and concrete wall between the site’s reactors and the ocean, that should reach 30 m underground, was still under construction, and would not be finished before mid-2014.

And the problem may be getting worse with plans to dump more radioactive water in the sea.